Passing a resolution in Tuesday, the European Parliament (EP) urged the EU Council to adopt a decision by the end of the year on the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the border-free Schengen area. The EP's resolution was adopted in a 547-49 vote with 43 abstentions.
In the resolution the EP voices "dismay" that since 2011 the EU Council has failed to take a decision on the full application of the Schengen acquis to Bulgaria and Romania despite the repeated calls to this end by both the European Commission and the EP.
The resolution recalls that all the necessary conditions for the full application of the Schengen acquis to Romania and Bulgaria were already met by both Member States in 2011.
The document urges the EU Council to take all the necessary steps to adopt its decision on the full application of the provisions of the Schengen acquis to the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania by the end of 2022, thus ensuring the abolition of checks on persons at all internal borders for both of those Member States in early 2023.
The EP further welcomes the willingness of Romania and Bulgaria to voluntarily host a fact-finding mission, which constitutes an expression, on their part, of the principle of sincere cooperation and mutual trust, despite the fact that they have already met all of the legal requirements and there are no grounds for any further evaluations.
The resolution also notes that the completion of the Schengen evaluation process for Bulgaria and Romania and the state of preparedness of the two countries to implement all the provisions of the Schengen acquis were confirmed by Schengen evaluation experts, and by the Council in its conclusions of 9 and 10 June 2011, and that in its draft decision of 8 July 2011, the EU Council verified that the necessary conditions for the application of the Schengen acquis had been met in all areas, namely data protection, air borders, land borders, police cooperation, the Schengen Information System, sea borders and visas.
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